Mered­ith Gold­stein is an advice colum­nist and enter­tain­ment reporter for The Boston Globe. She began writ­ing her col­umn, Love Let­ters, in 2009, and has since answered more than 1,000 let­ters. Mered­ith was born in New Jer­sey, raised in Mary­land, went to Syra­cuse Uni­ver­si­ty, and lives in Boston with a full-size cot­ton can­dy machine she bought short­ly after turn­ing 30.